OSLO BIRDER

BIRD GUIDING AROUND OSLO

Wednesday, 11 September 2019

It’s been a while since
I posted but I have been out and about. On Monday I had a productive trip to Østensjøvannet
which gave me 2 each of Slavonian and Little Grebe and best of all a Shoveler.
Yesterday, Anders and I went to Kurefjorden and got soaked but also had some
good birds although my camera never left my backpack. Waders were clearly
arriving whilst we were there and we had in total 11 Curlew Sandpipers which I
am sure must be a day record for me, 50 Dunlin plus Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey
Plover and Knot. Raptors were a target for us but yet again the rarities
avoided us but we did have Honey Buzzard, Marsh Harrier, Peregrine, Hobby, Goshawk
plus a few Sparrowhawk, Kestrels and Common Buzzards. Two very distant Kestrels
perched in a dead tree definitely should have been something rarer!

Today I went out to Oslo’s
islands hoping to find my first Curlew Sandpiper which needless to say I didn’t
but I did have extremely unsatisfactory views of my first Oslo Little Stint
which was keeping company with 3 Ringed Plovers and a Dunlin on a rocky island far
from shore…

Common Buzzard (musvåk) at Østenjøvannet

amd a juvenile Goshawk (hønsehauk) also there

summer plumage Little Grebe (dvergdykker) with Coots (sothøne)

and in flight

still not sure if this is a youngster or an adult in winter plumage

together

the Shoveler (skjeand)

my trip to the islands also involved lots of dragonflies at the pond on Lindøya. Here a mating pair of Migrant Hawkers / septemberlibelle / aeshna mixta

a close up of the male clasping the head of the female

a male I think

also a make?

this must be a female egg laying

not the best picture but here a male Common Hawker / starrlibelle / aeshna juncea has taken hold of the male Migrant who is attached to the female (not visible in this picture)

here are all three with the Migrant Hawker pair mating and the head of the Common Hawker in the middle

and the "proof" of my first Oslo Little Stint.... The 3 lefthand birds are Ringed Plovers (sandlo) and then the clearly smaller Little Sint (dvergsnipe) is above a Dunlin (myrsnipe)

and the same birds with the small size of the Little Stint clear to see

Saturday, 7 September 2019

Regular readers of this
blog will know that I am not averse to a wild goose chase. Usually I like to be
equipped with a recent GPS position to narrow the scope of the chase but
yesterday I went chasing with no more recent info than my own sighting on
Wednesday. I checked the field where I had had my Beans on Wednesday but they
were not here. The nearby turf fields were still attractive to waders though
with now 5 Lapwings, 2 Ruff and a Ringed Plover. I then went to the favoured
peat bog which resulted in wet feet, no geese and spookily few birds generally
although a fly over Lapland Bunting was a big bonus. I then checked two other
favoured fields and had to conclude that they were feeding somewhere else
(there after all a lot of fields in the area even if the geese are normally
quite traditional in their choices).

I had seen quite a few
Kestrels during the day and my hope of finding a more interesting raptor this
autumn was still very much alive and I though the viewpoint at Udenes Church would
offer a good chance. Arriving I had another Kestrel which confirmed by hopes
and then upon getting out of the car I heard a goose honk! The Beans were on
the river and a series of counts revealed 144 birds so a significant increase
on Wednesday’s number. I was too far away to be able to read any collars but
thought I could count the number of collared birds and would therefore at least
know if there were any new ones. I only managed to find 3 with collars though
(5 on Wednesday) and am quite sure I would have seen all the birds that had
them so that strongly suggests that some of Wednesday’s birds were absent from
this flock. I could see two birds with GPS collars and later when the GPS
sender on “30” sent in an update I could see he was there and that they had
just previously been feeding on one of the fields I had checked. It is very
unusual for them to use the river in the autumn when high water levels mean the
sandbank they use in the spring is not available but they seemed quite at home
on the water during the hour I watched and some were also feeding by upending.

I did also have raptors
from the watchpoint with a number of Kestrels, Common Buzzards and a Honey Buzzard.

one of 11 Kestrels (tårnfalk) I saw during the day. Most were hunting from wires over recently harvested fields and probably for insects

surprise of the day - a fly over Lapland Bunting (lappspurv)

The Taiga Bean Geese (sædgjess) distantly on the river Glomma

Cuckoo (gjøk)

even at long range the jizz and plumage allows this 1cy Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) to be identified

although the differences to Common Buzzard (musvåk) - pictured above - are small

on Thursday I photographed this Migrant Hawker / septemberlibelle / aeshna mixta in Maridalen making it the nothernmost record ever in Norway. I had suspected its presence over a week ago but hadn't managed any photos

The Whooper Swans (sangsvane) are still in Maridalen despite having failed in this years breeding attempt

Wednesday, 4 September 2019

If there was any doubt
that autumn had arrived then a message that the last working GPS sender on one
of the Scottish Bean Geese had just phoned home from Akershus (after having
been silent for over a week and having last sent from the Swedish breeding
grounds) was proof. I made my way up there this morning and had a flock of 98
birds on perhaps the most used autumn field. Amongst them were only 5 ringed
birds: 30 (the GPS sender), 04, 6U, S8 and 3Y. All of these are birds I have seen
before and 6U is one of the original birds I first saw in 2012. There seemed to
be a good number of families in the flock but I find it difficult determining
which birds are juveniles.

On the other side of the
track I was standing on was a turf field with lots of puddles and mud were turf
had been removed and this attracted a lot of wagtails, a few waders and
Sparrowhawks. I had 2 Ruff, 2 Lapwing, 7 Snipe, 1 Ringed Plover and a Golden
Plover which was nearly more than I had at Årnestangen on uneventful visits on both Monday and yesterday!

One hope of today was to
find Red-footed Falcon or Pallid Harrier. Of course I didn’t but 5 Kestrels and
3 Hobbies kept me on my toes.

Sunday, 1 September 2019

I played away from home again on
Friday but managed an extra time visit to the Dale.

My
plan was to find a Red-footed Falcon which has arrived in southern Sweden in
large numbers and with strong southerly winds today it felt reasonable to
expect there to be flocks in Norway too. I thought the Tuen area of Nordre
Øyeren would offer my best chance and I did have raptors by not the wished for
one unfortunately. Highlight was a juvenile Honey Buzzard that showed very
well, if far too briefly. It is not often that this age class is documented in
Norway so it was very satisfying to get some OK shots. Other raptors were 3 juv
Marsh Harriers, 2 Osprey, 2 Common Buzzard, a Peregrine and a distant Hobby.

The two Great White Egrets showed well
in flight and then I was able to watch one fishing at relatively close range.

Water levels had risen overnight after
yesterday's downpourd but the slither of mud still showing had 29 Dunlin on it
suggesting that a walk out to Årnestangen may have been rewarded on the wader
front (and who knows a flock of Rf Falcons sitting on the viewing
platfrom 😉)

Dropping in at the Dale revealed even
more raptors. I had 5 Honey Buzzards heading south in the course of 15 minutes
with three of them seen together. They were heading into the wind and took
their time and also had company of a couple of Common Buzzards. At least 2 were
juveniles but the distance and light did not allow me to work out the age of
all of them. A Peregrine also enjoyed the wind and a Sparrowhawk gave me 7
species of raptor for the day.

juvenile (1cy) Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) - this plumage an the structure of the bird differs from adults and they are much easier to confuse with Common Buzzard (musvåk)

perhaps easier to recognise as Honey from some distance although when it was flying straight towards me then it gave a Black Kite impression

good views of the Great White Egret (egretthegre)

both the birds are moulting primary feathers making them older (2cy+) birds

bird #2

I was able to sneak up to the feeding bird due to lots of high vegetation between us but it made focussing very difficult

their necks re incredibly long and thin

Common Buzzard (musvåk) and Marsh Harrier (sivhauk). Both are young birds

A 2cy Peregrine (vandrefalk) moulting into adult plumage

not often you see moose (elg) in the middle of the day in the summer but Nordre Øyeren has a large population of these beasts

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About Me

My name is Simon Rix and I am an English birder who has lived in Oslo since 2001. I am a bird guide and served a term on the Norwegian Rarities Committee (NSKF) from 2012-2018.
This blog primarily records my birding around Oslo.